Oldies On Tour

Saturday & Sunday 2nd & 3rd March 2024

A weekend of lounging about, enjoying the blue skies and warm weather just sitting around doing nothing much, though poor Martin did carry out some routine maintenance work on our computers/tablets/‘phones, so sorry Martin we are so thick when it comes to technology, our excuse, were “dinosaurs”. 

The one thing we didn’t neglect was exercising the dogs, not only were they taken down to the road with the ball thrower, the also had a ball thrown down the outside 36 steps that lead up to the top floor of the villa; poor buggers will be totally knackered after this weekend, whilst we on the other hand will be totally relaxed!!!

We did venture out Saturday morning for coffee.   Martin had shown Christine a dog friendly walk amongst the vines through an attractive valley heading towards Parcent.   Christine planned to be walking for about 45-minutes making a change from ball throwing for the dogs. In the mean time we went to wait at a newly opened cafe next to Blanca Bikes* in Parcent, but it turned out to be part of Blanca bikes and was “heaving” with cyclists; something very popular in Spain and especially around here, locals and cyclist holidaymakers.    We enjoyed nice coffee, beans roasted on site!! And their speciality, individual carrot cakes that look on the outside like cream covered muffins.; naturally all this washed down with Soberano!!!    We then got the call, Christine needed collecting as the last part of her walk was along the narrow busy road.   Martin headed off and returned a few minutes later with two dogs and their handler!!  We all sat in the sun, had another drink before heading home.

Martin knew about the post office scandal but hadn’t watched the ITV serries that set everything off, so the three of us settled down and binge-watched the 4-episodes, it was an eye opener to Martin and we picked up many interesting things we’d missed the first time we watched it.

On Sunday morning Christine said she’d like to do the same walk again, but this time in reverse.   So we dropped her off at the place she was collected from yesterday and returned to our cafe for a re-run of yesterday but to our dismay, they’d run out of Soberano, obviously we’d hit them too hard on Saturday!!!    

Yesterday the place was full of cyclists, all the bike racks were full and other bikes rested on the walls, but today very few cyclists, virtually empty bike racks, only folk who just came out for coffee and sunshine. 

When the call came, we were both ready so left and met up at the agreed car park and headed home.

Tonight we watched the follow up documentary to the serries “Mr Bates V The Post Office” this opened up everyone’s eyes even more than the 4-episodes as it interviewed the actual postmasters involved in the scandal.

* https://blancabikes.com/  

Friday 1st March 2024

The plan for today is a “do nothing” day, however the three of us did go out, Martin wanted to introduce us to a restaurant that has recently opened, the plan was for a coffee, scan the menus, lunch and dinner, and decide which we fancied.   Unfortunately we got hooked into their tapas with wine naturally, so our quick coffee turned into a bit of an extended lunch, but it was very nice.  With the sun shining and blue sky everywhere, we sat outside in very amenable surroundings watching a gardener going about his duties enjoying the ambience and getting “stuck-in” to everything.

I also heard from Sonia this morning; bad news, my new lenses had failed their quality inspection and a new re-manufactured ones wouldn’t be available ‘til, after we’d left for France so at this point I cancelled them.

Martins Villa is up a dead end road and no other buildings past his, it is ideal for using the ball thrower to wear out the dogs, an by-Jove we did, several times!!   The rest of the day was set aside to sit on the upstairs terrace and take in the sun, yes we sunbathed it was so hot up here.   Sundowners were also served on the terrace prior do dinner inside.  Though it is nice and warm when the sun is out in the day, it soon gets cold once it goes down in the late afternoon🥶🥶.

Late this afternoon I also got another message from Sonia saying there had been a “cock-up” and the lenses that failed their quality test belong to someone else!!!!!   Mine will be in on Monday and this will be confirmed first thing Monday🤞🤞🤞The cynic in me wonders if the cancellation had anything to do with it🤔🤔🤔

Thursday 29th February 2024

Leap year day today but nothing has changed!!!!!  This afternoon we head back to Alcalali to stay at Martins again, but first we have a another mission to fulfil; Crib day again, can’t get enough of it!!! 

Having done all the tidying up last night all that was left was finish off packing and re-make the beds etc., and head off, we will get some breakfast during the crib games.  My first “port-of-call” was Sonia’s, the optician’s in the village to collect the new pair of glasses I’d ordered.   Unfortunately they hadn’t arrived.  I knew when I ordered them it would be “nick ‘n tuck” they would arrive by today but had to take that chance.  The factory had said Monday, “definitely”, so that was that, I headed over the road to Lucia’s for crib.

Another good morning indulging in something we both enjoy when back in Campoverde, and we both came out ahead🤠🤠🤠€.  Now back to Calle Acebo to hand back the keys  to Marcus.

Before heading off we went down to Pilar de La Horadada to have a Chinese Menu del Dia, always good value and tasty not to mention over the years it has become a sort of tradition when travelling, it was en-route to Murcia Airport.   Unfortunately this restaurant won’t let dogs in so had to sit outside, that wasn’t a problem but their outside is in complete shade, no sun whatsoever so it was fairly cold.

The run back to Alcalali was uneventful other than I realised I’d left my “treat to myself”, a bottle of Grey Goose ugh👹🥵👹🥵 but we were too far down the road to return.  No doubt the next person to open the fridge will enjoy it.  We got back in good time to get sorted before Martin arrived from U.K., and as promised, handed him a “welcome back” Soberano as he walked in the doors.   It’s good to be back👍👍👍

Wednesday 28th February 2024

At yesterdays coffee morning and amongst various topics chatted about, Rodney mentioned he’d bought himself a small framed e bike, something I am now considering for mobility when away with Rosie as scooters with seats are out of the question.  The upshot is I’ve been invited round to their house and “have-a-go” this morning.

As agreed we turned up and Rita wheeled out the e bike, very smart and looked just perfect, small frame but normal’ish size wheels, and it also folded in half to fit into a car boot.   Now I must say at this point Christine had been adamant from the start it wouldn’t work for me so I was determined to “have-a-go”.  After a demonstration with Rita riding “Rodney’s” bike, it was my turn.   Getting on was fine, the electric motor kicked in but unfortunately I still need to pedal, albeit lightly, but pedal nevertheless.  I think Christine’s concerns were more about me falling off but my problem was with the restriction I have with my bad knee, I couldn’t get the crank round 360 degrees, my knee wouldn’t bend enough to complete this manoeuvre.   All I can say; thank goodness I didn’t rush out and buy one!!!!!   

With my practice session being abruptly curtailed, there was enough time for a coffee “re-match” before we had to go our separate ways,   Again the time flew and you’d never had thought we had been together yesterday morning!!!

Next we are meeting up with Frank and Sue for lunch, but after much discussion on where to go, and too many reasons not to go here, or there etc., we’re heading to Juanita’s in the village.  Non of us had Juanita’s as our first choice, nor our second either, but at last we had a consensus!!!!    Our plan was for a “menu del dia” but after settling down with some wine, a unanimous decision was made, “off menu” today!!!    Bottom line, we had a great time, lots of ribbing and laughs and to be fair, our food was excellent, no doubt helped by a couple of bottles of wine and Soberanos to follow.  

By mid afternoon we went our own ways, our way was to visit Shirley and Peter. I had seen them at quiz on Tuesday but with the noise and excitement (or otherwise!!!!) it was difficult to talk, hence this visit, but first a quick detour to drop off Tom-Tom and Rosie off.    It was marvellous to see how far Shirley has progressed since her stroke, we all enjoyed a successful conversation whilst participating in a few more “drinky-poos”.   What we hadn’t known about was that Peter had very recently had a hip replacement, and was getting over that, still he was very adept with his walking stick!!!  Though it was only a brief visit, it was a really good to see them again.

Back home, and with tonight being our last night in Calle Acebo, we had a thorough tidy-up before packing the car with most things before we collapsed in front of the TV after a really nice day and thoroughly over indulging!!!!!   Oh yes, in between each activity we had to take the dogs to the Campoverde doggy park, can’t expect them to sit quietly all day without exercise, after all they are a couple of delinquent Cocker Spaniels!!!

Tuesday 27th February 2024

Not too busy today, two catch-ups and most importantly getting haircuts.    Firstly we had a coffee morning with Rita and Rodney, but before that I headed off to get some cakes; again!!!

Rodney and Rita arrived and we had a good old chinwag catching up etc., and with time running away, we nearly forgot our appointments with Paula to get our hairs sorted.   As they left we agreed to pop round to them in the morning before they had to shoot off.

Paula did her usual excellent job of cutting our hair, after which we headed down to Torre de La Horadada to meet up with Daphne and Steve.  Again the chatter was incessant and the vino and gins flowed accompanied by some very tasty canapés.  After a few very enjoyable hours we departed, stopping off at the Campoverde dog park before getting home.  Tonight is quiz-night at Lucia’s and we have been invited to join a team called “we know nothing”, Jim, Hazel and Vince, though there is usually another couple who were away today allowing us to slot in.

Didn’t need any dinner tonight, had too much through the day!!!  

At the appropriate time I headed down to the quiz, Christine isn’t a big fan of quiz’s and with things to do, I headed off on my own.   Paul has been running this quiz for many years and always gets a very good turnout, presumably because it is lighthearted, a variety of question topics to keep things interesting, humour and of course, he’s a jolly nice fellow.  As usual there was the complete mix of questions, many of which most people can answer but also some very testing ones, tonight was no different.   Apart from the “business-in-hand” it is a very sociable gathering and it was nice to see some familiar faces, especially Shirley after the trauma she has been through.

The evening ended with the results, we were equal first 😂😂, a result, but on count-back we finished second🥵🥵, still a very enjoyable evening

Monday 26th February 2024

This morning we woke up to very grey skies that looked full of rain; we’ve experienced enough of these clouds in the last 12-months to recognise that!!!

Today we have Pat Hardy and Gale coming round for coffee so I “shot” off to the Panaderia on solo to get some cakes, unfortunately it started to rain so waited there ‘till it stopped.   Obviously when I returned they were all waiting for their cakes!!!   A very pleasant “catch-up” morning was had by all.

Having said our goodbyes, we headed down to Lucia’s, we are meeting Paul Butterworth for a lunch; it’s all go this week!!!, and hopefully there will be minimal interruptions and we can have a really good catch-up.   Paul being such a popular fellow in Campoverde, known by many, he is always being stopped for a chat.

After a very pleasant menu del dia, all for €8, including a glass of wine, we went our own ways.   We were heading down to Pilar de La Horadada to a motorbike shop that “used” to sell electric scooters with a seat.   Our issue is when we are out and about in Rosie 2 (motorhome) and parked a little way from town, they would be an ideal mode of transport,   not too much of an issue in U.K. as we generally take our car with us, but on the continent we’re on our own!!!   Our good idea was doomed, we knew they are illegal on the public highways in the U.K. but shock, horror, they are now illegal in Spain so the shop stopped selling them!!!!!   Unconvinced we went to a second “sellers of bikes” only to hear the same, they are illegal in Spain😡😡😡😡.  Back to the drawing board🤔🤔🤔🤔.

Naturally our time management had allowed for road test scooters etc., but now we were ahead so down to the beach in the Lo Pagan salinas to give the dogs a good time and for us to get over our disappointment.

Back home for a light dinner, tv and bed.